


Lifetime in Repeat

by starkqvill



Category: Infinity War (2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Gen, Infinity Gems, Infinity War, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 08:51:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14352090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkqvill/pseuds/starkqvill
Summary: “Tony,” Strange rasps out, voice ragged from screaming, “go.”“What?” Tony says as the sorcerer weakly pushes him toward the portal.“Go. There’s not much time.” Stephen repeats. Another weak push.





	Lifetime in Repeat

**Author's Note:**

> :)

Thanos arrives.

 

Thanos arrives and the world around Tony, a world that he loved but didn't love him back, is _destroyed_ before his very eyes.

 

Everything, everyone he’s ever loved, hated, or never seen is gone.

 

Thanos has three stones already. The space stone, taken when Loki sacrificed it for Thor.

 

Tony never thought he would get along with the mischief god, but now he guesses he’ll never get the chance.

 

Thor never spoke of what happened to Loki.

 

Next was the power stone. The guardians of the galaxy, which are a thing apparently, had rushed to get it back where they left it. But when they arrived, as that was left was death and destruction, and a purple dust settling over everything.

 

The Reality stone was taken long before Thanos set his sights on Earth. Taken from a museum, according to Gamora- the _other_ strong green person Tony knew now.

 

That was when Tony knew it was going to be a hard fight.

 

It starts with a blow to the chest.

 

Wanda patches through his comms and for one fleeting moment Tony is back in that bunker in Siberia, with a flit of red and his friends lying beneath him.

 

She tells him, voice heavy and ragged and thick with a Russian accent.

 

“V-Vi-Vision is gone.” She says, and he can hear the crying in her voice even if he can’t see her.

 

He stops what he’s doing, which happens to be quipping with the newest Peter, _Quill_ , and almost collapses. The suit holds him up of course but his body goes limp within the cool metal.

 

He pointedly  _doesn't_ think about how he's lost Jarvis three times.

 

He doesn’t ask her how or why she couldn’t save him. 

 

Instead he focuses on the matter at hand.

 

The mind stone. Taken. That’s four down. Two to go.

 

Strange has the time stone. The Soul stone was nowhere to be found.

 

He promised himself and everyone on that ship to Titan that they would protect the remaining stones.

 

He knew from T’Challa that there was a battle happening on Earth, in Wakanda. Tony tries to keep tabs on everyone, but it was such chaos that he just has to hope and _pray_ that everyone made it out alive.

 

But of course, his prayer must have only made it to voicemail.

 

Natasha is the next to go.

 

She calls him on her comm line. Tony tries not to imagine her, on the ground covered in blood that was soaking her newly dyed blonde hair, surrounded by fighting and monsters and destruction.

 

She doesn’t say much. Just a broken apology, and a plea for Tony to fix this, to save those she couldn’t.

 

Tony promises.

 

Pepper and Happy are next. He couldn’t even say goodbye to them. They were in a bunker. A bunker that collapses due to debris falling from skyscrapers.

 

Tony closes his mouth.

 

Then Rhodey. His best friend in the whole world, the one who never left him. Taken by a blow to the head, caught out of his armor. He calls Tony at the very edge of his life.

 

A ragged breath and a quip, an inside joke from the first time they had met all those decades ago, and then silence.

 

Tony shuts his eyes.

 

After that it was just clockwork.

 

Barnes. Wong. Thor. Okoye. T’Challa. Drax. Bruce. Mantis.

 

Then _Steve_. An entire half solar system away. They had never gotten to see each other since the war.

 

Steve had sent him a phone once. Tony never called.

 

It's Steve who calls Tony this time. He was still alive, but maybe _too alive_ for his own good.

 

“I’m sorry Tony.” He whispers, voice cracking and wet. He coughs roughly and makes a horrible noise, something Tony had _never_ wanted to hear. Something crashes in the background and the call cuts for a moment.

 

The silence in that millisecond is _deafening._

 

“-should have done more. We should have… done… _together._ ” Steve’s voice keeps cutting out, and Tony wants nothing more than to fly at mach speed and get him out of harm’s way.

 

But he’s stuck here, on a distant planet, completely useless to stop the people he loves get murdered.

 

His nightmare echoes in his mind. A Steve from years ago, eyes blank and noise bloody.

 

_Why didn’t you do more?_

 

Tony can still hear him talking, but he doesn’t want to hear it. He wants to cry, scream, bargain, _beg-_ but he can’t do anything. He’s frozen.

 

“ _Tony._ Tony- To-” Steve’s voice is a whisper now, and he repeats his name like a mantra and Tony’s breath catches in his throat.

 

“ _Steve_. Please, don’t go. It’s okay, I’ll find a way. I’ll find…” Tony cuts himself off, tears forming in his eyes.

 

“Tony… I’m sorr-” Steve’s voice falls just short and Tony can hear his ragged breathing and a choking noise.

 

Then silence.

 

Tony sees nothing. He hears nothing. He feels nothing.

 

He can’t breathe.

 

He doesn’t know how long he’s sitting there, silent and unmoving.

 

His senses start filtering in slowly.

 

He can hear Quill and Strange discussing something in the other end of the Milano, Peter Parker is looking at him worriedly.

 

Tony smiles at him, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

 

He wishes he had given Peter a real smile that day.

 

Peter is gone in less than a few hours. It might have been days. Tony loses track of time at this point.

 

He dies with a smile and a thank you. A boy that was too good for anything that was going on, someone who should have _never_ been exposed to any of this.

 

Tony breaks that day.

 

Something deep inside him breaks. Shatters in a million pieces and is spread amongst the bodies he sees.

 

He doesn’t see Peter Quill die. All he hears is a shout and a crack. He doesn’t look.

 

  
Then, it’s just Strange and Tony. The last remaining Avengers.

 

They might even be the last remaining humans.

 

Stephen is bleeding from his temple and his hands are even worse off than they were before. He makes a shield around them, and Thanos has the gauntlet.

 

In a split second, Thanos is distracted.  Strange does some weird hand wavy thing and a portal of bright green appears. 

 

“Tony,” Strange rasps out, voice ragged from screaming, “go.”

 

“ _What?”_ Tony says as Strange weakly pushes him toward the portal.

 

“Go. There’s not much time. _”_ Strange repeats. Another weak push. Tony shakes his head and looks up at the other man.

 

“I can’t- I can’t just _leave_ you here. You’ll die!” Tony pleads. Strange is all he has left.

 

“You can _fix_ this Tony. Just go.” Strange is breathing heavily now, and his temple is bleeding profusely. Keeping the portal up is clearly taking all of his energy.

 

_I’ll fix this, Steve, I promise._

 

“No. Stephen. Come on, let’s go.” Tony says. He’s never begged before but this can be excused.

 

“I can’t. Thanos wants the time stone. I can’t leave it with him. But I _can_ save you.” Stephen says, knees collapsing. Tony goes to pick him up but Strange stops him.

 

“I can’t go. But you can.” Stephen says, breathing heavily amongst the rubble.

 

“ _Go,_ Tony. You can go back. Fix this.” Stephen repeats as he picks himself up slowly. The shield is falling fast, and Tony can hear Thanos laugh maniacally.

 

The world around them starts to shake.

 

“And Tony?” Strange rasps out.

 

Catching Tony off guard, Stephen shoves him through the portal.

 

“Steph-” Tony begins, but the air is pushed out of his lungs and he can do nothing but _stare._

 

Tony goes falling backwards, right hand extended to reach for the sorcerer, Before he knows it, the world around him is fading into dark green as the last of his body tumbles through the portal.

 

Before all falls away, he sees Stephen smile bitterly at him, before a large shadow settles upon him.

 

 

“Avenge us.”

 

  

A resounding  _snap_ of someone's fingers reverberates in his ears.

 

Tony’s universe distorts into a constellation, mapping out his world as the sheer _force_ of what feels like a supernova surrounds him.

 

There’s a power he doesn’t understand within him. The broken arc reactor in his chest flickers from its dormant state before shining. Shining so bright that it’s _blinding._ It bleaches Tony with tangerine light.

 

Tony closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

 

The world is dark for a moment.

 

He feels a black hole opening up beneath him.

 

 

 

Falling.

 

 

                
And _then,_ he hears it.

 

A familiar roar.

 

A rush of air into his lungs and he’s opening his eyes in a sharp gasp.

 

The world around him is tinted green for a split second, then he recognizes the tall buildings of New York form around him. Destroyed, battered and damaged, but _there._

 

_Real._

 

The Hulk, such a familiar sight, roars above him and Thor looks down in an expression akin to awe.

 

He remembers a promise made to a blonde woman, a broken apology, a half-hearted quip and a thank you from those he loved. A plea for change made by a man who he considered a friend.

 

Then his world is filled with _blue_ as he looks to see Steve smiling down at him with pure _love_.

 

_“What the hell?”_

 

**Author's Note:**

> This hurt me to write.
> 
>  
> 
> My personal prediction for the end of Infinity War!


End file.
